That's because the catalog of alleged abuse shocks the conscience: The Harrisburg list includes 37 priests, three deacons, six seminarians, nine people from other diocese and 16 members of religious communities. There may be more in the grand jury report.

All were placed in positions of responsibilities over vulnerable young people, to whom parents trusted both their spiritual and physical wellbeing.

While the guilt or innocence of some of those accused has not been - or may never be adjudicated - the survivors of these crimes know all too well how the church responded to this crisis: by transferring offending clergy to other parishes, where they were free to abuse again.

During a wide-ranging interview, Persico broached both broad and specific issues surrounding the 18-month-long investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.

The grand jury report remains under a court seal amid challenges filed by at least two dozen priests and other individuals named in the report but not charged.

"I think in looking historically at it you may see bishops named who probably in view of the way we do things now as compared to 20 or 30 years ago, it would not be considered acceptable that type of action," Persico told PennLive.

Bishop Ronald Gainer's announcement Wednesday that the Diocese is scrubbing references to former bishops from all diocesan schools, halls and rooms is another important step on the road to atonement.

And the bishop's request for that most Christian of all things -- forgiveness -- from survivors, the faithful in the pews, the public and all those "who are hurt and scandalized in any way by such reprehensible actions," was a gesture whose importance reaches beyond its symbolism.

Ultimately, it will be up to abuse survivors and the faithful to decide whether they accept Gainer's plea for forgiveness. Speaking to some of them, that is a bridge that some survivors may never be able to cross.

But action does not - and should not - end at the church door.

The church can take further action by ripping a page from the playbook of Penn State University, which set up a victims' compensation fund to pay out $93 million in claims stemming from the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal.

In its current form, Scarnati's bill would give child victims until age 50 to bring civil lawsuits against abusers or those employers who were allegedly negligent in failing to stop them. The window to sue now expires at age 30.

Scarnati's bill also would eliminate any statute of limitations on criminal prosecutions for child sexual abuse crimes in the future.

Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Berks County Democrat, and a clergy-abuse survivor, has spent months unsuccessfully pushing for approval of a so-called "real deal" amendment that would give adults who were abused as children an additional two years to seek justice in civil actions.

Rozzi has argued that it sometimes takes survivors until they are well into middle age to both come to terms with their abuse, and to step forward to seek redress for it.

The two sides have dead-locked and they are running out of time.

A failure to take action this year means Scarnati's bill would die in the current legislative session, and would have to be reintroduced in the new, two-year session that begins in 2019.

We agree that it is important to get this issue right. But the bill has been sitting before the House since February 2017. That is more than enough time for people of good faith to reach an accord.

Now that Harrisburg diocesan officials have taken the long overdue step of making public the names of those accused of abuse, a step on the road to forgiveness, it's up to the other dioceses to follow suit and for lawmakers to help survivors finish their journey.